It is a mistake to write off Michael Schumacher.<\/p>\n
That is the claim of the seven time world champion’s countryman Timo Glock, who drives for the back-of-the-grid Marussia team.<\/p>\n
43-year-old Schumacher, meanwhile, is looking ahead to the third and final season of his comeback contract, having so far failed to score a single podium with the Mercedes team.<\/p>\n
“You can’t underestimate him in any way,” Germany’s Sky Sports News HD quotes Glock as saying.<\/p>\n
“He is highly motivated and still someone who you always have to take into consideration.”<\/p>\n
Former driver Derek Warwick, however – the new president of the Silverstone-owning British Racing Drivers’ Club – is not so sure.<\/p>\n
He predicts the great German will be having “sleepless nights” as he looks ahead to another year of being beaten by his teammate Nico Rosberg.<\/p>\n
“I think the Mercedes will be quick this year as they continue to develop their challenge to the big three at the front,” he told the Sun.<\/p>\n
“So can Schumacher win a race?\u00a0 Yes, but it will probably at the default of Rosberg, because Rosberg has now shown what a magnificent grand prix driver he is,” said Warwick.<\/p>\n
According to Glock, the obvious favourite for 2012 is Sebastian Vettel.<\/p>\n
“What he did in the past two years was phenomenal,” Glock is quoted as saying by SID news agency.\u00a0 “In terms of consistency, he will be hard to beat.”<\/p>\n
1980 world champion Alan Jones hopes Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber can match that form.<\/p>\n
“He probably knows that he’s got to do it this year, and he’s at his fittest and most determined,” the Australian told Fox Sports News.\u00a0 “I put him down as a real dark horse to be honest.”<\/p>\n
\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is a mistake to write off Michael Schumacher. That is the claim of the seven time world champion’s countryman Timo Glock, who drives for the back-of-the-grid Marussia team. 43-year-old Schumacher, meanwhile, is looking ahead to the third and final season of his comeback contract, having so far failed to score a single podium with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[1343,5262,5340,34,92,4,457],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15022,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15021\/revisions\/15022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}